Your Location:

Groups call on NMFS to take immediate action to protect the North Atlantic right whale from extinction

Monday, January 17, 2005

Yarmouth Port, MA

IFAW (the International Fund for Animal Welfare – www.ifaw.org), the International Wildlife
Coalition (IWC- www.iwc.org) and the Whale and
Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS-www.wdcs.org) today called on the National
Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to immediately undertake aggressive efforts to
protect North Atlantic right whales. In the last six weeks, four right whales
have been found dead, three of them mature females and, at least two of them,
pregnant. This alarming rate of right whale mortality threatens the entire
species with extinction. The right whale is one of the most endangered mammals
on earth, and with a population numbering less than 350 individuals, each death
is significant.

On November 24, a 49-foot pregnant right whale was killed off the Virginia
coast after it was apparently struck by a Navy Vessel on November 17th.
This pregnant female and her full term fetus both bled to death. In December, a
dead right whale was found 86 miles east of Nantucket, Massachusetts. On January
10, another right whale, a 45-foot female named Bolo, was found dead 75 miles
east of Nantucket. On January 12, another female right whale named Lucky, was
found 15 miles east of Cumberland Island in Georgia. Lucky, named for scars she
received from a previous ship-strike, was pregnant with her first known calf.

“To say the last 12 months have been devastating to right whales is an
understatement,” said Regina Asmutis-Silvia, biologist for the IWC and
WDCS. “The incoming Secretary of Commerce must take immediate action or
else leave a legacy of overseeing the extinction of a majestic
species.”

The most significant threats to right whales, and the greatest source of
mortality, are shipping and fishing activities. Shipping and fishing are
prevalent in the species’ breeding, feeding, and migratory corridors along the
eastern seaboard of the U.S. About 72% of whales bare scars from entanglements
in fishing line. Incredibly, six right whales were reported entangled in 2004
with four of those animals trapped in the gear since 2002. Entanglement in
fishing line can quickly result in death as the line may often become embedded
in the whales flesh, leading to infection, or starvation as the gear prevents
the feeding, diving and other life activities of the whale. One to three right
whales are killed by ship strikes annually, and an unknown number of animals
lost at sea.

Under the Endangered Species Act
and Marine Mammal Protection Act, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
is obligated to protect the species from harmful human activities. The NMFS
acknowledges that if a single North Atlantic right whale is killed by
anthropogenic causes each year, the entire species may go extinct. In last 12
months alone, at least five right whales were found dead, including three
full-term, pregnant females believed killed by ship strikes. The tragic loss of
these five animals does not even take into consideration the number of right
whales that may have been struck and lost at sea, or entangled in fishing gear.

NMFS has still not issued its proposed fishing regulations to minimize the
risk of entanglements (scheduled for release in March of 2004) and there are
currently no mandates requiring ships to alter course or change speed in right
whale habitats.

“Each death is a tragic loss,” said Erin Heskett, Senior Program Officer for
IFAW. “NMFS needs to immediately implement shipping regulations, such as speed
restrictions and re-routing before this entire species disappears right before
our eyes. This is not a question of waiting until we have more
information; if there was ever a case for precaution, this is it.”

About IWC (The International Wildlife
Coalition)IWC is a US based wildlife protection organization founded
to challenge the needless deaths and abuses to wild animals world-wide.
IWC has representatives in the US, Canada, Kenya, and Brazil.

About WDCS (The Whale and Dolphin
Conservation Society)The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society is an
international charity dedicated to the protection of whales, dolphins and their
environment. WDCS maintains offices in the United States, United Kingdom,
Australia, Argentina and Germany.